Camille is a twentysomething working in the LGBT nonprofit industry. She runs an LGBT news blog at gaywrites.org.
Ryan Anderson, a conservative author and outspoken opponent of equal rights, is the latest talking head to make the same ridiculous claim: that it’s harder to be an evangelical Christian in the United States than it is to be LGBT. At The Atlantic’s inaugural LGBT Summit in Washington, D.C., the magazine’s Mary Louise Kelly interviewed Anderson about civil liberties and religious freedoms, particularly when it comes to nondiscrimination protections for employees and business customers. That’s when Anderson suggested Christians have a harder time existing in the professional world than LGBT people: Read more
This year has been a big one for LGBT rights, most notably after the Supreme Court legalized marriage equality nationwide. As huge a step as that was, LGBT advocates know there are many more hurdles to full equality, like workplace and housing protections, equal rights for transgender people, and tackling the crisis of LGBT youth homelessness. But evangelical Christian leader James Dobson isn’t thinking about any of that other stuff. In his mind, it’s all over. Dobson recently appeared on Andrew Wommack’s The Gospel Truth TV program, where he declared that, with the SCOTUS decision, anti-LGBT Christians have “lost the entire culture war.” Here’s the clip, courtesy of Right Wing Watch: Read more
Some Christian colleges are constantly trying to limit the rights of LGBT students and teachers, but one school in Tennessee has reached a new low. Carson-Newman University, a private Southern Baptist college, successfully filed a waiver granting the school an exemption to Title IX, which normally protects students against discrimination. The university can now legally ban any students whose “lifestyles” aren’t aligned with its values. This category includes, but isn’t limited to, LGBT students, students who have had abortions, pregnant students, and unwed parents. Read more
When I read about Abby Stein in a Jewish Telegraphic Agency article, I knew I wanted to talk to her. She’s 24, a student in Brooklyn, and the descendant of a founder of Hasidic Judaism, Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer (also known as the Baal Shem Tov). Four years ago, she left the Hasidic faith in which she was raised, and about a month ago, she came out publicly — including to her conservative family — as a transgender woman. When it comes to gender roles, Hasidic Judaism is arguably one of the strictest religions in how it upholds specific rules and responsibilities for men and women. Understandably, Stein’s coming out hasn’t gone over well with her family, particularly with her father. But she’s found a safe space in liberal Jewish circles where she’s accepted for her true self, and she blogs regularly to share news about her gender identity, her journey, and her relationship to her past and present faith. Stein and I talked on the phone about her interest not only in atheism, but in progressive Judaism, humanism, philosophy, and the many other pieces that make up who she is. Read more
Only days after a Wisconsin elementary school was forced to cancel a reading of I Am Jazz, a book about a transgender girl, students at a neighboring high school banded together to show that their community isn’t a hateful one. Mount Horeb Primary Center had scheduled the reading because a child had recently come out as transgender, but after Christian legal defense group Liberty Counsel threatened a lawsuit, they called it off. But this morning, Mount Horeb High School’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance stood with 200 supporters at the school’s flagpole and read aloud from the book. Read more
